Uzbekistan: Freight Piles up on Rail Line to Tajikistan

The Uzbek railroad is continuing to accept cargo intended for Tajikistan, although a line has been closed since November 17 when reportedly a bomb blew out the supports for a rail bridge, the independent news site fergananews.com reported

Now 270 freight cars have piled up on the Termez-Kurgan Tyube line destined to Tajikistan, interfering with the railroad’s expedition work, Uzbek rail workers said. They proposed to their Tajik counterparts transferring cars through the international crossing at Kudukli in the center of Tajikistan, for delivery to the south of the country.

According to a report from the independent Tajik news service Asia-Plus, Vladimir Sobkalov, a Tajik rail official, said his rail company had suffered major losses organizing a pick-up from Dushanbe of all the passengers stranded by the blast.

Sobkalov rejected the proposal of his Uzbek colleagues to send the freight to the center of Tajikistan, saying the Tajik rail did not have the capacity to accept freight in Dushanbe and then re-route it to the south, as this would incur major costs for trucking the loads through mountain passes.

He also said that for the last six days, Tajikistan has not heard any further news from Uzbekistan about the details of the explosion. Officials cordoned off the area and police were not letting anyone through. Nothing more was learned about the extent of damage to the bridge.

Sobkalov said he thought with the Uzbek railroad’s capacities, they should have been able to repair the bridge within a day. The Tajik railroad had offered to provide any assistance free of charge to speed up the restoration of traffic on the Galaba-Amuzang line, he said, but had no response from Uzbek authorities, and no indication when repairs would be completed.